China’s systems to launch and catch
carrier-based aircraft are more advanced than those ­designed for the
new generation of US supercarriers, according to a ­Chinese expert in
the technology.

Rear Admiral Ma Weiming, a top engineer working
on the project, said on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress
on Monday that China had made breakthroughs in its advanced ­arresting
gear (AAG) system designed to retrieve aircraft at sea, while the US had
stumbled.

Chinese are testing a new ElectroMagnetic catapult launch EMALS system for its future aircraft carriers.
You can see J 16 in these pics pic.twitter.com/U5B3oJ4Q2A

He also said China’s electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) was more advanced than comparable US technology.

“We have long overcome [all technical
difficulties in EMALS]. I have ­already moved on from this [area of
research and development],” he said.

Saying he was just a scientific researcher, Ma
declined to say when his advanced technologies would be installed on
China’s homegrown carriers.

Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie said Ma had made “a certain advances” in AAG technology, compared with the US.

Macau-based military observer Antony Wong Dong
said the US AAG engineers had underestimated the difficulty of
developing the technology and China may have been able to take note of
this to make progress.

“Ma’s team .... may have learned lessons from their US counterparts, and made some breakthrough on AAG development,” Wong said. South China Morning Post.